The Conan Doyle family say the rights simply passed down the family line.

The popular drama, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, attracted 8.8million viewers for its New Year's Day episode

Ms Plunket claims to have registered as her trademark all the leading characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and accuses the BBC of breaching her trademark

In an interview with the Mail in September, Ms Plunket said she owned the copyright to the last ten stories from the Conan Doyle oeuvre in the U.S.

She also claimed to have registered as her trademark all the leading characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and accuses the BBC of breaching her trademark.

One of Ms Plunket's four husbands was US producer Sheldon Reynolds. Mr Reynolds made a Holmes TV series, and she says the rights were bought for £40,000 by her mother from Russian Princess Nina Mdivan - a sister-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's daughter, Dame Jean

She said: ‘No one has asked permission to use my trademarks and I am confident that if and when I go to court I will be able to prevent the BBC making any more Sherlocks. That is my wish.’

After Ms Plunket and Reynolds divorced in 1990, she fought a legal battle to maintain ownership of the copyrights.

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.

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BBC could be sued over ownership of Sherlock Holmes characters by heiress